Ossian Collection > Ossianic controversy

III
from father to son. The Highlanders occupied an isolated
position, and during the winter evenings, and at their feasts
and entertainments, their chief pastime consisted in reciting
the poetry of their country's bards. Besides, the bardic was
one of their niost ancient, and, at the same time, one ot tlieir
oiosl honoured institutions. The Druids were their priests and
philosophers, and the Bards their poets and historians. One of
the laws of the Druids provided that none of thèir mysteries
should be committed to writing; and a Bard, in orderto obtain
his honorary degree, required to commit to memory so many
thousand pieces of the poetical compositions oi' his native
country. Thus we see that by the institution of the Bards,
and the constant rehearsal of the people, these poems could
have been handed down from one generation to another.
III. Further, it has been said that the Highlands of Scot-
land cannot produce a single poem of older date than fche
eighteenth century. " 11' a single poem of Ossian," says Mr
Laing, " in rnanuscript, of an older date tlian the present
century (1700), be procured and lodged in a public Library, I
shall return among the first to our national creed." Whether
Mr Laing did or did not return to his nàtional creed, 1 am no1
in a position to say ; butthiswe know, that fche manuscripts of
the Dean of Lisniore, lately published by bhe Elev. 1 >r M'Lach-
lan, of Edinburgh, were written between fche years 1512 and
L526.
IV. But Mr Laing is not contented with making fchis bol
but unfounded assertion, he charges Macpherson with \A
giarism. He fcells us fchat he had stolen these compositions
i'roin Holy Writ, and fche classical poets of ancient and modern
fcimes. This charge is ably met by I>r Glark, of Kilmallie,
in his " Dissertation on the Authenticity of fche Poems of
( tssiaii;" to which I would refer any one who is desirous <»f